Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- Despite several policy efforts by the state to encourage housing, recent decisions at the local level indicate that communities are still reluctant to approve new housing, a situation that is exacerbating the state's housing problems and creating a challenge that advocates hope the state's new governor will tackle head on beginning next year.

Housing authorities from Amherst, Boston, Chelmsford, Lowell and Newton have formed a working group to explore selling off scattered-site properties in their portfolio to reduce maintenance costs and raise funds to develop more affordable housing. Scattered-site housing was promoted by the federal government some 50 years ago as an alternative to dense public housing but that has proven to be difficult to manage, housing authority executives say.

Mayor Linda Tyer has allocated $8.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to address housing insecurity and homelessness. Funding will help with the construction of 37 new permanent supportive housing units and 41 new affordable housing units.

Harvard and developer Tishman Speyer are commiting 25% of the housing units in the first phase of its proposed Enterprise Research Campus in Allston to be income-restricted. This commitment that would be the largest percentage of income-restricted units in a single project by a private developer in Boston.

There’s limited housing stock available in the Boston area, a problem that becomes even more noticeable ahead of Sept. 1, when 70 percent of the city’s leases begin. This year, desperate renters seeking new homes are offering more than the listed price for apartments, according to a report by WGBH.

A former Arlington town manager and the president of a community organization give their opposing views on whether the state’s multi-family zoning requirement in MBTA communities good policy.